SD mentioned custom trailers in his latest blog post that caught my interest. How they’re suitable for almost any person with a slight budget. These custom trailers are pretty cool because they really do come in all shapes and sizes. So if you’re looking for a trailer then check our Slovenian designers custom trailer post and im sure you’ll learn a lot about what you need to get to make your trailer life a better one!

How many people out there love Yahoo!? The Yahoo search engine, in my honest opinion, is the ONLY search engine for me! Why? Well I go on and on about why Yahoo Search Engine is the best search engine in the world over at iheartyahoo where i talk about pretty much everything Yahoo related. How much I love yahoo and how I am probably the biggest Yahoo fan alive.

I hope you guys can go check it out, it’s a few days old and I’m really trying to do something new with it. Some say I’m on this one man crusade to convert all none yahoo believers, others say I’m just a Yahoo fan boy, one thing is for sure, on iheartyahoo.com I post crap worth reading, crap worth noticing. Crap you probably wont read anywhere else, so check it out. :)

I personally don’t have anything against freelance designers, I’m pretty much as freelance as they get, but a friend of mine recently hired a freelance graphic designer for a small job, mainly because I was down with the flu and she was too shy to call the office and ask for one of my designers.

Her experience fell in the “I hate freelancers” category which to me was a low blow. I have always tried my best to keep the freelancing general reputation (on my end anyway) as high as possible, but some people, some low life good for nothing design bums have to go and add to the bad name that is slowly being forced upon the freelance community.

To all you new freelance designers out there, please read the following tips with care and carve into the inside of your eyelids;

If you don’t know your clients Gender, for the love of everything holy do NOT guess. After my friend and the Freelance Designer (who i shall call Design Bum here on in) emailed a few times, Design Bum called her, and asked for Mr Murphy. She was at work, and simply said “There is no Mr Murphy.” To which he replies “Oh alright, I thought you were a man.” What a moron, a sexist assumption like this could loose any freelancer a client, in a heart beat. Be careful when talking to a client, word things right, take your time, think before you spit bull shit out of your mouth.

Follow the clients instructions to the bone. Don’t cut corners, don’t be creative, don’t crap where you eat, you’re a designer, not fucking Houdini. Client has a vision, but does not know how to bring it to life, as a designer, that is you job. Sure, sometimes you will see a fatal mistake or decision the client is making, as a designer, it is your obligation to note that so and so could be done in a more efficient way, or adding something here or there would be to the clients interest. Give feedback because the client will feel better that way. Why else would they be paying?!

DO NOT take jobs if you can not meet a clients deadline. This is a big NO NO. The client has a deadline, you don’t meet that deadline the client looses time and money, now instead of helping the client profit, and making money off the project, you’re hurting the client and with any luck will not get paid. Simple math, are you freelancers following me here? 1 + 1 = 2. yes, 2 not 8 or 0.827, just fucking 2. Client says blue text you do the text blue.

Remember, if you run out of time and you’re not done yet, tell the client, don’t hide it and play them for fools. They know what they want, so if it’s not there or not finished they’ll notice!

Don’t rip other peoples work. I wont go into detail on this because I plan to make a full blog post later on this very same matter, but remember, rip a template, you hurt the client and end up loosing all credibility. After being found out you might as ell just kill yourself. Gun to the head, pull trigger.

Just be honest and make a decent living and name for yourself - Michael Kane

Be it in graphics, web design or even writing, freelancers these days are multiplying at an alarming rate, it’s not even funny. Many of these so called freelancers are popping up all over the place from all over the world don’t even know what they are getting themselves into. Now I am not a writer, so I will refrain from commenting on the Freelance Writers out there today, those that provide so called original articles and content, so I will talk about what I know, graphic and web design.

I am a designer, so I have high expectations of designers. Just last month, I worked with a designer, James Croft on a clients site, islandmix that can be found in my design portfolio. I expected him to know how to listen to my ideas, then take my sketches and concepts combining them with his own to present me with at least three sketches of possible solutions to the design problem at hand, then collaborate together some more. I expected him to know something about the website in general–what they were supposed to accomplish–and to balance his creative urges with the clients needs. I expected him to be prepared to go back and forth with me and our client as we refined the design, and to complete his assignments as agreed.

James, by the way, did all of these things and we produced a striking and effective website design that blew the clients minds away (literally speaking of course, no not really.)

My point is, you can’t just hire the first freelancer that sounds cheap and seems to know what he/she is doing. Always ask around, google up his/her portfolio, ask to see sites that are online that he/she has worked on, and if there is not a “Designed by; designers name” somewhere on that site, email the site owner and ask for confirmation. Most of the time, using one of the ways I suggested above, will end up saving you a lot of time, heart ache, and money.

So many kids are popping up these days calling them selves designers, just because they downloaded a 30 day trail of Photoshop and have a couple fonts under their belt to flash at client in an attempt to impress them. It’s a sad truth, but clients that look for a designer, usually know very little about design, therefor get sucked into a whirl pool of banana manoosha (which means bull shit in baby language). Beware of fake designers, they are everywhere, behind you, under your bed, in the mail box. Sniff them out with common sense.

Another thing when hiring a freelance designer is Ego. A designer needs to have a rather large ego, but needs to keep it under control in service of his/her client. Many do not do this well. When working with a new client, it’s wrong to force ones opinion on a client, but one should rather give it, and better explain the point at hand, accepting anything the paying client has to say of course. If a designer can’t do these basic tasks, then you’re better off without them.

Inability to listen and really hear, inability to surface assumptions (his/hers or the client’s) or to clarify them are all things that you should watch out for in a freelance designer. And, of course, many designers are simply poor communicators, either in writing, phone or face-to-face. However that’s not always a sign that the free lancer is not a talented designer, but I promise you, it will not be an easy task when it comes to communicating with him/her about the project.

There is no room to trust your gut instinct when it comes to hiring a freelance designer, just go with the facts and what you see in front of you. Reputation plays a big role, so do past projects, check and check again, get a phone number if you can, check the contact page on their portfolio for an address. Only then can you be sure that you’re getting what you paid for!

“Happy freelancer hunting!” - Michael Kane